


Matching Haircuts

by Bearzywrites



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Everybody knows except Raleigh, F/F, Fem!Raleigh, Fluff, I always write fluff, Post-Movie, Raleigh should always be a girl, this fandom is seriously lacking in the lady loving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 20:37:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1048321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bearzywrites/pseuds/Bearzywrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raleigh Becket is in love with her new copilot... too bad she's the last person on the Shatterdome to notice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Matching Haircuts

**Author's Note:**

> I was procrastinating NaNoWriMo and dug up this half done fic to finish. It's super short, but it's kind of cute. Only vaguely edited and I don't have a beta, so please leave reviews! Enjoy.

“You can knit?” Mako was sitting in the bed next to Raleigh’s, trying to keep the smirk off her face.   
“Something wrong with knitting?” Raleigh resisted the urge (barely) to stick her tongue out at her co-pilot and instead looking back down at her work. She wasn’t a good enough knitter yet that she could be sure she wouldn’t drop a stitch. They’d been stuck in the med bay for the last week, ever since Operation Pitfall had succeeded, and Raleigh was bored. Last time Tendo had stopped by, she’d asked him to grab her yarn and needles from her bunk room, and ever since, she’d been quite happily working on a new beanie ever since. It was black with royal blue stripes “So that we can match”, she’d told Mako. Mako had rolled her eyes, but Raleigh could tell she was supressing a giggle.  
“Nothing wrong with knitting, I just always figured your hobbies would be a little more… badass.” This time Raleigh did stick her tongue out.   
“Not all of us are raised from birth to be sword smiths and then decide that they’ll design tattoos based on the deadliest beasts to ever walk this damn earth.” Mako threw her eraser at Raleigh’s head for that.  
“It wasn’t from birth. I was three.” She looked Raleigh dead in the eyes at that comment, and neither woman could keep a straight face any longer. They dissolved into giggles. 

Mako and Raleigh exchanged blows with fierce determination. They had finally been allowed to go back to a normal routine and two hours later their faces glistening were with sweat in the kwoon. Mako’s hair was as perfect as always, but Raleigh’s short crop stuck to her forehead uncomfortably. (Whoever decided we should train in the middle of summer was an idiot… or was that me?) Suddenly Mako’s bo staff lifted her chin.   
“I don’t think you tried at all. Were you daydreaming?” The Japanese girl taunted as they moved back to a fighting stance.  
“Hair envy. I think I just lost a match because you have perfect hair.” Raleigh knew her face couldn’t actually be redder than it already was from fighting, but she still ducked her head so that she didn’t have to meet Mako’s eyes. She heard a giggle from the other side of the fighting mat and looked up to see that Mako was leaning heavily on her bo and twirling one blue strand around a finger on the other hand.   
“Well, it’s not the first time people have been distracted by my perfection.”   
“It’s a good thing you’re cute, because you’re full of shit.” Raleigh lowered her bo into a starting position while Mako smirked back and did the same thing.   
“Ready?”  
“Constantly.”   
They fought until they were exhausted and sleeping in a concrete cell had never seemed so welcoming to Raleigh as that night.

Two days after their release from the med bay, Raleigh was climbing out of the shower when she caught sight of her own reflection. She wasn’t a particularly pretty girl by any means, too much muscle, and not enough breast, but it was the scars that really caught her off guard. She’d spent the five years since Yancy’s death ignoring the bright red lines that she’d received in Anchorage, but this was the first time she’d seen the new scars from the trip to the breach. They weren’t the real problem though, she thought as she ran a hand through damp, shaggy, hair. She tugged on her jeans and a t-shirt and raced off to bang on Mako’s door.   
“Mako! You in there?” There was a pause and then the scraping of the door handle.  
“Coming!” When she opened the heavy door, Mako looked like she’d been napping. Actually, she probably had, Raleigh swore the girl was at least half cat. “What’s the problem?”   
“I need to ask you a favour.” Raleigh scratched her head.  
“I’m listening…” 

“Are you sure about this?” Mako paused, the electric razor buzzing in her hand. Raleigh nodded.  
“At the very least, at least my hair won’t distract me while we spar.”   
“Your hair is a lovely colour, I remember when you were active with your brother and I watched you on TV, you wore it in a bun. Why do you wear it short now?” Raleigh shivered slightly as the razor made contact with her scalp, but motioned at Mako to keep going.   
“After-“ She swallowed. It never got easier to talk about Yancey. “After knifehead, I shaved my head. I watched too many movies when I was a kid, and cutting my hair seemed like a symbolic way to start a new chapter of my life.” She smiled at Mako in the mirror. “I guess I still watch too many movies.”  
“Actually, I think it sounds like a good idea.” Mako gestured to her own hair. “I messed with my hair when I lost my family also. Kaiju blue, you see?” A thought flickered across her face and she grinned down at Raleigh. “Do you think you could give me a haircut like Sensei?” Raleigh’s eyes went wide.  
“Are you sure?”   
“I miss his hair. It was stupid, and I think it is why he never had a girlfriend, but I miss it.”   
“It's always the dumb things you miss. Would you believe that I couldn’t sleep for my first year working on the wall because I was too busy listening for Yancey’s snoring?” Mako giggled “But yeah, I could shave your hair like that if you want me to.”   
“Thanks” The razor buzzed along the side of Raleigh’s head one last time and then shut off. “All done! Is it my turn yet?” 

That night there was a knock at Raleigh’s door, rolling over in bed she looked at the clock. 0031.   
“Coming!” She called, sliding off her bed. “It’s a good thing I couldn’t sleep!” She opened the door to see Mako standing there sheepishly in what looked like a Kaiju onesie (Raleigh wasn’t entirely sure, it might have been Godzilla), clutching her pillow.   
“I haven’t been sleeping, and I remembered what you said about not being able to sleep without Yancey snoring and I realized I probably just got used to sleeping in the same room as you while we were in medical and… this is weird. I’ll go. Sorry.” She said all this in the space of about 3 seconds and then turned to leave. Raleigh stood there, stunned for a moment or two, but then her mouth acted without permission, as it did sometimes, and   
“It’s a good thing you’re tiny. Otherwise we’d never both fit in this bed.” Mako swung back around with wide eyes (and hey, the thing has a tail, look at it go!)   
“You want me to stay?”   
“Yeah, I can’t sleep either. Maybe this will help.” Mako squealed, looking excited, and then quickly regained composure.   
“Thank you!” Her grin was enormous, and Raleigh couldn’t help but smile back as she held the door aside for her copilot who practically hopped inside.   
“Do you mind if I have the wall side? I’m always scared I’ll fall out of bed otherwise.” Mako shot Raleigh a questioning look.   
“Go for it.” Raleigh chuckled, and Mako scampered across the bed. 

The next morning when Raleigh woke up, she was flat on her back with one arm around Mako who was curled up next to her with her head on the larger girl’s chest. Despite the uncomfortable position, Raleigh suspected this was the most refreshing night’s sleep that she’d had since knifehead. Groping around on the nightstand she searched for her alarm clock. When she found it, she discovered that it was only 0630. Something told her that there would be no waking Mako up happily, so she settled back into a light sleep.   
It was two hours later that both women woke up.  
“Breakfast?” Raleigh smiled at Mako, ruffling her stupid haircut. She’d cut it herself, but she was still torn between giggling and getting upset when she saw Pentecost’s military cut on his adopted daughter. Mako nodded, reaching up and ruffling Raleigh’s stubble in response.   
They entered the dining hall side by side, almost touching but not quite, and Tendo rushed up to them.   
“Raleigh! Mako! You doing anything- wait. What have you done to your hair?” Raleigh burst out laughing.   
“Tendo, you really should have kept in touch while I was working on the wall my man, the buzz cut is nothing new for me.”   
“I wasn’t talking to you girl, I was talking to Mako.” He raised his eyebrows at her and Mako laughed too.   
“It’s the same as Sensei’s.” She grinned at Tendo, who sighed.   
“Well whatever makes you happy I guess. But anyway, are you two doing anything today, because we need to start packing the Shatterdome away and I need to know who I can roster onto jobs.”  
“Count us in.” Raleigh held out her hand and Tendo grabbed it for the weird handshake thing he always did.   
“Thank god. You Jaeger pilots are great for the heavy lifting.” He turned and walked away, calling over his shoulder “The rosters will be up at lunch!” Raleigh and Mako burst out laughing again as soon as he was out of earshot.   
“We should probably eat something.” Raleigh said eventually.  
“Yes, probably.” Mako replied breathlessly on the end of a giggle. 

“So you’re telling me that you’ve only lived in Shatterdomes since Pentecost adopted you? How old were you then?” They were busy loading crates of LOCCENT equipment into the back of a truck. Apparently Tendo hadn’t been joking about setting them to heavy lifting.  
“I was thirteen when Onibaba attacked.”  
“Whoa, really? This is going to sound weird but you looked way younger than that in the drift.”  
“The drift is memories, and memories are not accurate. I think that I felt a lot smaller than I was. I was alone and screaming for my mother, so I felt like a child.” She looked at Raleigh with sad eyes and the other woman felt a stab of sympathy. She loaded the crate she was holding into the truck and put a hand on Mako’s shoulder.   
“Hey, I’m sorry.”   
“だいじょうぶ” Mako smiled up at Raleigh. “Really. I have made my peace.”   
“If you’re sure.”   
“I am.” They continued loading the truck in a comfortable silence. 

“I don’t know about you, but I’m sweating like a pig.” The Hong Kong heat was barely dying off as Mako and Raleigh finished their jobs for the day. Mako wrinkled her nose as she shut the door on the last truck.  
“That is a disgusting saying.” She ran a hand through her short hair and shuddered. “But it feels accurate. Should we shower?” Raleigh sniffed the air for effect, and mock vomited.   
“Definitely.” As they headed towards the shower block, Raleigh turned to Mako with a question. “So, did you want to sleep with me again?” When Mako turned to look at her questioningly, Raleigh blushed. “I mean, did you want to share a bed again!” (Shut up Raleigh) “I got a really good sleep for the first time in ages last night, and-“ Mako cut her off with a grin.  
“I would like to sleep with you again very much.”   
“Good.” Raleigh grinned back.   
“Good.” Mako started to giggle, and Raleigh was caught up in it. It was beginning to feel like they were always laughing when they were together, and it was a feeling Raleigh loved. She hadn’t had much time for humour on the wall. People had been kind of aloof to her there, firstly because she was an ex jaeger pilot and the workers tended to treat her the way she felt, like she had failed, and secondly because apocalypse or not, people would always treat a woman in construction differently to the rest of their coworkers. Now that she was amongst friends, she felt herself returning to the bubbly personality that she’d had in the early days of her career. It almost felt like a betrayal of Yancey, but at the same time she knew that he would prefer that she was happy than beating herself up over the events of six years previous. 

(Shit.) Raleigh thought as she stood under the cool water of the shower. (I’ve gone and fallen in love with my copilot.) The realization had come to her as she’d climbed into the cubicle. She kept wanting to say something, anything, to make Mako laugh again. She knew that it wouldn’t even take much, but Mako’s small laugh had become the center on which her world turned. Raleigh leaned against the wall and cursed herself. She’d never really been in love before, but she’d always been a closet romantic, love songs and cheesy romance novels. She’d been a preteen back when twilight was huge, and she’d loved every minute of it. But now it all finally made sense. She guessed she should have seen this coming when she’d been unable to keep her eyes off the Japanese woman from the second they met. From her instant loyalty to her, even before they were copilots. She’d felt such a connection to Mako that she’d even challenged the Marshall to get an opportunity to spar with her. Raleigh filed through her memories since reaching the Shatterdome and by the time she reached their flirty sparring session the week before she was ready to be buried alive with shame. She was so far gone that she would be surprised if nobody had noticed before her. She screwed up her face. (Tendo. Tendo knows for sure.) Raleigh had to talk to him. 

She saw her opportunity at dinner that night. Tendo was just entering the room as Raleigh finished her food, Mako still halfway through her plate.   
“Hey Mako, I’m just going to go ask Tendo about something quickly, be right back.”   
“I will come with you.” Raleigh panicked.  
“No, that’s fine, you finish eating.” She backed away, trying to stop herself from blushing and almost tripped over the seat.   
“Tendo, man, you have got to help me.” She pleaded as she approached him. He burst out laughing.   
“Does this mean you’ve finally realised that you’re completely in love with Mako?” Raleigh just looked at him, begging him with her eyes, and he laughed harder.   
“Raleigh, sometimes I think you’re 16, not 26.”   
“Tendo…” She whined, and he finally stopped laughing.  
“Just tell her, how bad can it possibly be?” Raleigh flushed bright red before answering.  
“We might be sharing a bed…” She ran a hand through the stubble on her head and Tendo positively guffawed.   
“Raleigh, girl, that’s supposed to happen after you tell her you’re interested!”   
“We’re not having sex!” Raleigh snapped, trying to keep quiet so that Mako didn’t hear. “It’s just easier to sleep with someone else in the room!” Tendo didn’t stop laughing.   
“You’re hopeless.” Raleigh turned to leave and Tendo put a hand on her shoulder to stop her, suddenly serious  
“You have to sort this mess yourself Raleigh, but I will get a double bed moved into your room tomorrow. Sleeping together on a single will get uncomfortable pretty fast, even if Mako is tiny.”   
“You’re still terrible, but thanks.”   
“No problem, man, but you’re on more heavy lifting tomorrow for this.”   
“Shit.” Raleigh muttered and Tendo laughed.   
“You would have been on it anyway, you don’t know enough about the equipment for anything else. Mako’s coming.” He flashed her a grin and walked away. 

“What was that about? I heard Tendo laughing a lot.” Raleigh spun to see Mako standing behind her, and blushed bright red.   
“It was nothing.”   
“Okay.” Mako shrugged, then looked concerned. “Are you okay? You look sunburned.”   
“Nah, I’m fine.” Raleigh tried desperately to collect herself. “You wanna play cards or something before bed?” Mako yawned in response.  
“Can we just turn in? I am really tired, and Tendo said we were going to do more heavy lifting tomorrow.”   
“Wait, you- “   
“Heard everything.” Mako looked smug and grinned at Raleigh over her shoulder as she walked away.   
“Then-“ Raleigh did a half jog to catch up.  
“I did say that I wanted to sleep with you.” Mako giggled and Raleigh turned even redder than she already was, stopping dead in her tracks until Mako turned around, and walking backwards called “Are you coming to bed or not?”

**Author's Note:**

> ”だいじょうぶ” - Daijoubu, or "It's okay"


End file.
